Visiting My Family for Christmas

Forrest finished up his finals and we drove from SLO up to the Bay Area on the 19th to spend Christmas with my family. My parents did most of the cooking for the 15-plus–person event; here you can see my mom's tasty chocolate crinkle cookies. Not all of the dough made it into baked cookie form. :) She also cooked several other desserts: Russian tea cakes, snickerdoodles, pies...

I started working on Lisa's present, a stuffed purple moose, but I didn't finish it before Christmas-present-opening time. However, she didn't finish my gift socks either, so it's fair.

We had an unusually large Christmas turnout this year. In addition to the usual suspects that we also go camping with every summer, my mom's cousin showed up this year along with her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. I hadn't seen the son and daughter-in-law since they got married, so it was nice to see them again. The traditional corn-in-wine sneakiness and pea-flinging fun went on, as did the yacking chatting late into the evening.

During the down times, Forrest entertained himself by doing things such as this battery experiment, or seeing how many 9-volt batteries connected in series it takes to kill a Christmas light. My dad got out his tools and helped Forrest. I think my father and my boyfriend are bad influences on each other. :P

This post is backdated; it was actually written on January 23, 2008.

Finished Plushie Chicken

I finished the chicken! Since it's a gift for Forrest, and I was flying down to California to see him on the 15th, I didn't have much time to work on the chicken. I almost finished it on the plane. When I landed, I had myself a one-legged, unlabelled chicken. :)

Luckily, Forrest had a final to take today, so I sneakily finished up his chicken gift while sitting in his living room. Isn't it cute? (Don't talk to me about the "fact" that headless chickens don't have eyes on their neck-hole, nor are they smiling there. These so-called facts do not concern this plushie chicken.)

This post is backdated; it was actually written on January 23, 2008.

Last Day at BillMonk & Obopay

It was fun times at BillMonk, but things change and today was my last day working for Obopay (BillMonk's parent company). Eric, Gaurav, and I (the remaining BillMonkers) met up with Chuck, Christina, and Josh (the former BillMonkers, minus Scott who couldn't make it) for a final farewell lunch at a yummy Thai-ish restaurant. It was good to see everyone again.

I hope I'll continue to see them all, since I consider them friends as well as (former) coworkers.

As for BillMonk, I'll be staying on the Obopay payroll as an independent consultant to keep the site up and running.

This post is backdated; it was actually written on January 23, 2008.

Homemade Stuffed Animals

I'm not sure where I got the idea into my head, but I've decided I want to try some hand-stitched stuffed animals. So that I would (sorta) know what I was doing, I skimmed the relevant books at the University Village B&N:

• Plush-o-Rama: Curious Creatures for Immature Adults
• Plush You!: Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff
• Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals

I've started sewing a plush rotisserie chicken (it's an in-joke gift), from a pattern I drafted from scratch. Google Image Search was helpful in reminding myself about the details of the chicken form. :) It turns out that the pattern pieces need to be significantly larger than I expected, so when I cut out the real fleece pieces I gave the pattern a one-inch margin.

The chicken is coming along nicely!

This post is backdated; it was actually written on January 23, 2008.

Nutritious Dinner

Nutritious Dinner

I don't think any meal I ever had in college came close to this level of awesomeness.

I was just kidding around when I called Forrest up to tell him that I'd purchased only satsumas and Spam at the grocery store. "No, of course I'm not going to eat them together. That'd just be gross."

But by the time I got home, I really did want to eat both of them tonight. So I had a satsuma for an appetizer; a can of thinly-cut, crispily-cooked Spam for the main course; a bottle of beer to drink (I was out of milk); and another couple satsumas for dessert.

Yummers!

Root Canal Fun

Dental Stupidity During College

When I went to college, there was no Kaiser Hospital within 50 miles of San Luis Obispo, so I wasn't able to remain on my parents' medical insurance plan. Which meant that I didn't have insurance for most of my college years. That, combined with my strong dentist-visit anxiety, meant that my teeth didn't get their regular 6-month checkups for 5 years.

Which, based on the title of this post, you might guess led to bad news in the dental health department. You'd be right.

Along with all the "little" cavities I now have to take care of, I had this one really nasty one. One of my upper right molars had a huge cavity in it — large enough, in fact, that I could feel it with my tongue and from which I sometimes had to dislodge rice. Amazingly, it didn't hurt.

Despite the lack of pain, the tooth was so decayed that my new general dentist up here in Seattle wasn't sure that the tooth could be saved at all. We talked about the possibility of a tooth implant. :(

Many X-Rays, Little Action

All told, I had 5 separate X-rays of this tooth, in 5 separate visits, counting two earlier ones not detailed here, before the root canal itself actually happened.

My general dentist took X-rays and referred me to a periodontist (gum-dentist), to get a specialist's opinion. The periodontist took more X-rays and sent me back to the dentist, pronouncing the tooth probably good enough to keep but in need of a crown lengthening procedure (in which they cut back your gums to expose more of the tooth) before a crown could be put over a post-root-canaled tooth.

The general dentist got the information from the periodontist and called me. He recommended I go directly to the endodontist (pulp-dentist) and get the tooth root-canaled right away.

So off I went to another consultation appointment, with another set of X-rays. The endodontist was very certain the tooth could be saved; in fact, he seemed surprised that everyone else was so concerned. He wasn't even certain the crown lengthing would be required, although he sounded less sure there.

The Root Canal

Based on the phrase "more fun than a root canal" and knowledge about the procedure passed down to me through popular culture, I was really not looking forward to the experience at all. I was hoping they'd put me under anethesia, like when my wisdom teeth were removed. No such luck; the plan was to use only novocaine. I requested nitrous oxide*, and agreed to pay out of pocket it for it. Apparently, dental insurance companies believe it to be "alternative treatment" and thus don't cover it.

So today was my root canal appointment. I got the N₂O before the big scary novocaine needle. The endodontist explained that I could expect it to feel somewhat like a "good glass of white wine," and that comparison wasn't too far off for me. My limbs got heavy, like they do when I have a drink. I could think pretty much normally, but it was easier to let distressing thoughts sort of float away and not bother me quite as much. But compared to the Wikipedia description of N₂O, the effects were really pretty weak. None of the depersonalization, derealization, nor flanging of sound. I'm not sure whether "lessened anxiety" is part of the "euphoria" continuum, but I did feel less anxious. My legs still squirmed all over the place and my hands still gripped each other, but the anxiety was less intense than I think it otherwise would have been.

Unlike my memories of sharp pain when I got novocaine shots is the roof of my mouth as a kid, this time there wasn't really any pain per se. It was pricking and unpleasant, I was freaking out in anticipation of the remembered pain, and the sensation of the needle being pulled out was utterly icky; but nothing I'd say was painful.

Digression: Needle Phobia

According to the well-named Dental Fear Central, "local anaesthetic administration can be entirely painless" but "most needle phobics have had a very bad experience with an injection." I really did not like my childhood dentist — he was scolding sort of man, and admonished me that "it doesn't really hurt that bad!". Dental Fear Central lists some reasons why the shots given by the dentist might not be the most ideal, painless experience. Of the 6 reasons listed, I suspect (or for some reasons, know) my childhood dentist guilty of 4.

He apparently didn't get the memo that "the days when 'the lecture' was part-and-parcel of a visit to the dentist are gone. ... [D]entists nowadays realize that admonishing people is a sure-fire way of keeping them away."

Anyhow, the take-home lesson here is to get a dentist who believes painless injections are possible, and cares enough to do the things necessary to make it happen. Numbing gel before the shot itself is a good start!

Novocaine successfully applied and the right side of my face all numbed up, the actual root canal procedure itself started. There were all sorts of pointy tools and files and drills, but I generally closed my eyes while they were in use. The endodontist had told me that a sign of too much N₂O was tingling or pinhole vision. So while my eyes were closed, I'd count to 10, open my eyes long enough to confirm that vision was still normal, then close my eyes again.

A minute or two into the procedure, I was comfortable trusting the novocaine and the N₂O to keep any real pain at bay. Which is not nearly the same as being relaxed, but at least my squirming was confined to just pressure- and noise-induced unhappiness.

While I was trapped in my unable-to-talk state, I tried to occupy myself with things other than the pressure and noise and wondering if something might hurt despite everything. So I listened to what the endodontist was saying to his assistant, or wondered about random things, like:

• Do dental students practice root canals on cadavers? (Afterward, the assistant say, "Hmm... No, that's interesting, but I've never heard of it.")
• Do deaf dental patients not feel as cut-off, communication-wise, when getting a dental procedure done?
• Do deaf dentists feel cut-off from communication in the same way as speaking patients do, or is it different when you're the one in charge?
• What kind of conlang could you make out of the phonemes available to you while having a dental procedure done? (I could use all unrounded vowels up to the close-mid height. I only had from the velars back available for consonants, though.)
• Would someone on N₂O pass a field sobriety test? Would their reactions be distinguishable from a drunk's, even if neither passed?

Isn't that the sort of thing you think about while getting a root canal done? :P

Afterward

I was surprised that I wasn't in excruiating pain, after all I'd heard about how bad root canals were. I've been taking over-the-counter pain killers, which are doing the job. I'm still a little nervous about chewing on the right side of my mouth, but the endodontist says the temporary filling should be good for at least 8–12 months...

* Wikipedia claims nitrous oxide to be an analgesic, but the endodontist was emphatic that it is not. He said you definitely wanted some real pain killers with your nitrous oxide, or else not even the laughing gas would keep you happy.

Kittens in Peril

In the past month, I've had 3 nightmares about kittens in danger. What's up with that? In one, the kittens were merely abandoned and needed care. In another, the kittens were being attacked by this deranged woman with a shotgun. In tonight's episode, the kittens were being menaced by a dragon. (Hiding under the dining room table was enough to protect them — obviously. Don't you question Dream Logic.)

So why is my unconscious so fearful about kittens' safety, all of a sudden? I haven't been around kittens in ages. Very strange.

Snow in Seattle

Forrest wishes me to announce: It snowed today. News at flickr.com/photos/arthaey. :)

Update, 2:28 AM: Chat log, wherein Forrest says he didn't quite mean that I should copy-paste his suggestion literally, has been redacted.

Anticipating Travel Hell

From the Seattle Times:

“The three busiest air-travel days are expected to be next Wednesday, and the Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving, when the number of daily passengers is expected to exceed 2.5 million.”

Guess when I'm flying down to visit my folks. Yup: Wednesday, and flying back on Monday. Ugh. I'd better bring a book or two, eh? :(

Update, 5:21 PM: Apologies to my feed-reeder friends who may have seen this post several times. I've been playing with the blockquote styling, so the post is seen as "updated."

What If Your Financial Accounts Were Public?

What's the worst-case scenario if your financial data were publicly available? I don't mean your login credentials or other personal information necessary to access your financial accounts; obviously that's inviting identify theft and stolen money. I just mean your accounts, balances, and transactions.

Is there any security risk associated with that data? I suppose if you're worth a lot of money, maybe the worry is that you could become a target for having your money stolen. But I wonder how much is perceived risk, versus actual risk.

The other concerns I can think of all seem to be social: Embarrassment at purchases made or amounts spent. Awkwardness at having more money than friends, or having less, or being better or worse at managing what you do have. Indignance — the "what business is it of yours?" response.

I ask because I'm considering the security risks of downloading all my financial data from Yodlee into my own database, so I can run whatever analysis I want on it. I want to imagine the worst-case scenario: that my machine is not secure, and some hackers are able to read all my financial data. What mischief could they do with it? Brainstorming in comments and by email welcome!

Vinocide: Me, in the Kitchen, with the Wooden Spoon

All I wanted was some wine. I didn't have a corkscrew, so I went out and bought one. But when I tried to pull the cork out, it was stuck. Really stuck. Dismayed after a minute of trying to brute-force, finesse, and cuss the cork out of the bottle, I gave up and pushed the cork in with a spoon handle.

Alas, the internal pressure in the bottle cause red wine to erupt everywhere, including on yours truly. I washed my eyes in the sink — I closed them immediately on the hissing of the bottle, so I was fine — and threw my shirt in the sink to rinse out the drops of red wine. Red red wine, stain my clothes so fine... :(

After the immediate aftermath was taken care of, I realized that the red wine sprayed around looked sorta like a crime scene out of CSI. So I documented it. :)

A Fresh Dev Env Should Be a Good Thing

In Happy Land, a fresh development environment isn't a scary thing. You install whatever programs are required (which are documented in some central location, of course), then check out and run the latest code from trunk. I mean, it's compiling happily, since no one is breaking the build, right? (They would have to bring in donuts, or suffer The Cow of Shame, or something, if they had broken the build. That's how things are in Happy Land.)

Of course, many folks don't get hired by Happy Land, Inc. For a painful, demoralizing example of this fact, check out this set of emails. (I found this via the blog post The F5 Key is Not a Build Process on Coding Horror.)

New Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000

This photo here is the view from my apartment window. The fall colors up here in Seattle really do seem more vibrant and varied than in California.

This summer, I went on a camping and backpacking trip at Lake Tahoe. Alaska Airlines messed up my checked baggage, shipping my stuff up to Alaska for several days. When my bags finally got to me, my camera — which I bought in 2002 and had been very happy with — no longer worked. :(

So I finally bought a new camera: a Canon PowerShot SD1000, to replace my dead Canon*. PowerShot S230. I definitely recommend the Digital Elph cameras to anyone who just wants a good point-and-shoot camera.

* Every time I typo Canon as Cannon, it makes me think of Gannon, which Wikipedia will tell you is "misspelling of Ganon, a villain from The Legend of Zelda series of video games by Nintendo." But then in the article, it says it really was spelled Gannon in the first video game — which is precisely the one I think of when I remember Gannon and his cold, heartless laugh when you died.

Client-Side Protections Can't Save You From Firebug

I keep a long list of inactive holds for library books. When I eventually do want to check out some popular book, I've moved up in the queue considerably. For many of my inactive holds, I'll be first in line as soon as I activate the hold.

So I wanted to active one of these holds today. I logged in to the Seattle Public Library website and went to select today's date from the "change status" drop-down menu. Ack! The 30th was the only available date for November, which is a bug so far as I can tell.

But then I remember the power of Firebug! I opened up the extension's console, added a new <option value="2">2</option> to the date selection menu, and submitted the change. And voilà! I now have an active hold on this book.

If this is indeed just a bug in the options displayed, then Firebug let me work around their problem. On the other hand, perhaps they've changed their policy about activating holds. Or something. In that case, their server-side code is obviously not enforcing the same rules that are evident on the client's side of things.

Moral of the story: Server-side code must enforce all your business rules and validations. Server-side code is your most important line of defense; client-side protections fall prey to modifications by tools like Firebug. This doesn't mean abandon all client-side validations; they have their place. But that place is not to ensure the integrity of the data in your database.

Secondary moral: Keep Firebug handy to have your way with troublesome websites. :)

Paying for Free Things

Free software is pretty much all I use on my computers, with the exception of the OS itself in the case of my Windows laptop. I use free services online. But sometimes I'm so pleased by some piece of software — it's so above-and-beyond what you'd expect from a free utility, or it's made my life much more simple/enjoyable — that I want to donate a bit of money to its creator to say "thank you" and "keep up the good work!"

Below are the programs (and one person) that I have given money to when I didn't have to:

Trillian

Before there was GaimPidgin, there was Trillian. (Or at least, I knew only of Trillian in my pre-Linux days.) I was pleased enough with having multi-protocol chat capabilities to send them a few dollars. When they later came out with a Pro version, they grandfathered in anyone who had ever donated $1 or more as a "thank you" for early support.

Flickr

This one isn't a donation, but rather a voluntary upgrade to premium service that was actually worth it. Once you hit 200 photos on Flickr, you can't browse to your older photos; you must have a direct link if you still want to access them. I hit the 200-photo limit pretty quickly, foresaw myself continuing to use Flickr heavily, liked the service, and thus gave them $25/year for unlimited photos.

Peter S. Beagle

Not software. :) Author of The Last Unicorn, which I was first introduced to in animated film format as a kid, then later in the original book form as a high schooler. (I've never seen it in hat form.) He's supposedly getting screwed out of quite a bit of money that his publisher's been making, thus the donation.

IPA Unicode "Keyboard"

Useful website for copy-pasting real Unicode characters when you're typing IPA pronunciations. 'Cause I know you're, like, always typing IPA pronunciations. ;)

Firebug

If you do any sort of web development and you don't know what Firebug is, run, do not walk, to http://www.getfirebug.com/ and get yourself some sweet, sweet Firebuggin'. You'll thank me later. (Note: I haven't actually donated to Joe Hewitt, the creator of Firebug, yet. He doesn't have a PayPal donations button on his site, so I'm emailing him directly asking if he'd like some money. :))

NPR (or more specifically, KUOW, my local affiliate)

I like listening to NPR and the local public radio shows when I'm driving. They have interesting discussions of fairly diverse topics (not just politics, but all sorts of stuff). When they interview people, they ask good questions — you know, the ones you're yelling at the radio. They ask those questions, but respectfully at the same time (rather than in a hostile know-it-all way, like some shows). So I figure I should support my local public radio station. (Added May 7th.)

So what things have you paid for, that you didn't have to (or could have gotten away with not)? What made it worthwhile?

Saturday House project: Tagmindr

Last Saturday, I went to my first Saturday House meetup — that is, a bunch of geeky types all hanging out and coding and such. Last week, they organized themselves to create a new project, dubbed Tagmindr.

Tagmindr asks for your del.icio.us username and creates an RSS feed for you, including only bookmarks that have been tagged with "tagmindr". But del.icio.us already offers RSS feeds per user and tag, you say? True. What makes Tagmindr cool is that it also looks for a tag of the format "remind:YYYY-MM-DD", and only puts items into your feed once that date comes around. Essentially, Tagmindr is a time caspule or reminder system for your bookmarks. Rather than relying on some generic "to-read" tag, you can now create more specific reminders that will automatically come to you.

The project was written in Python using the Django framework, neither of which I knew. Plus I was very tired from only getting a few hours of sleep, so I didn't really contribute much directly. I did shoulder-surf and help debug, but I ended up not writing much code myself. In any case, it was still fun being in that environment — it felt very much like our "coding parties" back in college. (I would have gone to today's Saturday House, except I stayed up until 5 am last night and thus slept in quite late. Heh.)

Passing Out at the Optometrist's

Just a Routine Eye Exam

I went to the optometrist before work today to get a new prescription for my glasses, since it's beginning to get difficult to read fine print far away again. It's been one or two years since my last prescription, so this isn't all that unexpected.

My eyes have deteriorated just a bit — I seem to always go in for new prescriptions when my eyes have gotten -0.25 diopters worse. So now my right eye is -5.50 and my left is -5.75. My left eye also seems to be developing a slight astigmatism, which I hadn't known about before.

Glaucoma Testing Fun

Then it was time for the beloved glaucoma test. By which I mean, I hate the test where they blow a puff of air at your eyes. Always makes me nervous in anticipation, then I jump back when it happens. Sometimes we have to repeat the test in the same eye because I blink and jump back before they get the reading they needed.

I asked the doctor (assistant doctor?), Mauricio, if he was going to do the air-puff version of the glaucoma test, and he smiled and said no, they have another type of test for glaucoma that doesn't involve the puff of air. It involves eye drops instead — which I'm also not so thrilled about, but I'm just squeamish and overly protective of my eyes in general. (This is why I don't wear contacts; I can't even touch my eyes.)

So after a couple of tries, he gets the drops in my eyes. The drops stain my eyes (yellow, judging by the color of the drops themselves) and numb them. He brings one of the machine gizmos up to my face and says he needs to get very close to my eyes, hence the numbing agent. I ask Mauricio if "very close" means a chance of actually touching my eyes, to which he says yes. I sorta freak out calmly, by which I mean I hyperventilate and squeeze my knees with my hands while holding very, very still so as to reduce the risk of him bumping into my eyes and minimizing the time needed for the test.

It was over soon — maybe one minute, two? — and he sat back down at the computer to type up the results. He was busy saying something about the pressure in my eyes looking good when suddenly I noticed a headache coming on. Within a few seconds it grew much worse, so I closed my eyes and leaned back in the exam chair. I mentioned, "Um, I have a really bad headache all of a sudden."

And Not-So-Fun Adverse Reactions

The next thing I remember is waking up feeling very confused. My arms felt very heavy, like I'd had way too much to drink. My left hand was clutching the kleenex I'd used to dab the excess eye drops from my eyes, and it wasn't really feeling like unclenching. Someone was holding my right hand (in retrospect, I believe they were actually taking my pulse). I opened my eyes and looked around at the three doctors in the room with me.

The primary doctor, Dr. Kelly, said that this wasn't an unheard-of reaction (although not common, either, or they wouldn't still be using those eye drops!) to the fluorescein (the dye) and/or proparacaine (the anesthetic) in the eye drops. For most people, he said, they felt back to normal within 10–15 minutes. Very occasionally, people's nausea would lead to them throw up, so he showed me where the trash can was but told me not to worry about it too much. The woman doctor gave me a cup of water, which helped my very dry mouth and made me a little more alert. They helped me get out of my fleece zip-up, since I'd broken out in a cold sweat. I asked someone to fish my cell phone out of the fleece pocket and call Gaurav (my manager) to let him know I wouldn't be in on time. Some talking went on — I don't remember clearly — and then they turned down the lights for me and let me rest in peace.

(I heard Dr. Kelly out in the hall talking to Mauricio, who sounded understandably upset and concerned. [CYA? Heh.] He had apparently not known about this possible side effect. Dr. Kelly said something about not needing to give it to younger adults; my memory is, uh, a bit hazy and they were talking out in the hallway, but my impression was that he was saying younger people were more likely to have this reaction? I'm not sure... Anyhow.)

After the promised recovery time of 10–15 minutes had come and gone, the doctors asked how I was feeling. About the same level of abysmal, I told them. (Me: "Ugh, meh." Doctor: "What?" Me: "Um, not any better.") Soon, the nausea got the better of me and I threw up in the previously-pointed-out trash can. I felt a little better, but not much, so I climbed back in the exam chair and rested some more. When Dr. Kelly came in to check on me and I told him I'd thrown up, he said something along the lines of "Oh, geez," like I was reacting unusually badly, even for having this unusual bad reaction in the first place. He said that would be the low point of my feeling bad, and that I should feel better soon. He checked my pulse again, was satisfied, and let me rest some more.

I started feeling cold, so I draped my fleece over me and dozed off. The headache never really got any better, my limbs still felt heavy and difficult to use, and then the nausea came back and I threw up a second time. About two hours after the beginning of my eye drop reaction, I finally felt well enough to stand up and wander into the hallway, looking for Dr. Kelly, Mauricio, or the woman doctor (whose name I never caught).

I found Dr. Kelly and reported my status — still very crappy-feeling, but wanting to go home and lay down in my own bed. I asked if anyone would be able to give me a ride home, just two blocks down the street, since walking even that distance didn't sound like much fun at the time. He went off to ask around. But I'd forgotten that, insurance-ly speaking, the office couldn't let an employee drive me home in their personal car. They offered me a taxi, but the waiting for the taxi would take longer than just walking home, and it felt lame to take a taxi for two blocks even if I was feeling that bad.

I declined the taxi and said I'd walk after all, which they okayed so long as I wasn't feeling dizzy. Which I wasn't... But just walking from the exam room to the reception desk brought on the headache much worse, so I slunk off to a back room with a gurney, pillow, and thin blanket to rest some more. A while later, I wasn't feeling any better, and was actually shivering. All I could think about was getting back to my warm apartment and my own comfy bed. (My apartment's gotten warm since the cold weather has set in, because the steam pipes deliver warmth to the apartments above me even when my own heater is turned off.)

I tracked down the woman doctor and told her I'd take her up on that taxi after all. But when I went downstairs to meet the taxi, it wasn't there. I could see my apartment building from where I was standing. My legs were shaking and my head hurt. I just wanted to get home, dammit, so I gave up on the taxi and walked the two blocks home. (I did call the optometrist office when I got home, to let them know I hadn't disappeared on them.) I crawled into bed, where I dozed off and on for the next many hours.

Researching the Reaction

While I was still at the doctor's office, Forrest called several times on my cell phone to check up on me. He was also googling about what information I had passed along to him. He was concerned that he couldn't find much online about this supposedly "not unheard-of" reaction to the eye drops. At his suggestion, I called my primary physician's office at Virginia Mason for a second opinion. The nurse there taking patients' calls said that, so long as my pulse was okay and the headache had abated in 24–48 hours, I should be medically okay. Not at all a happy camper, but okay.

It wasn't until 12 hours after the eye drops that I could finally sit or stand for more than a minute before the headache forced me to lay down again. (The headache isn't responding to ibuprofen, but laying down makes it much more manageable.) Once I could sit at the computer, I googled fluorescein and proparacaine for myself. Like Forrest said, there wasn't much talk about such bad reaction to eyes drops.

What I experienced (with all durations of symptoms being estimates):

• losing consciousness (lasted a few minutes? I'm not sure; I wasn't quite there at the time ;))
• nausea (lasted 1-2 hours)
• vomiting (twice, about an hour into it)
• bad headache (lasted 14 hours and counting :()
• sweating (lasted 1 hour)
• chills and shivering (started 1 hour into it, lasted 1 hour)
• muscle rigidity (lasted 1-2 hours; like when I had too much caffeine, back in high school)
• light sensitivity (lasted 1 hour)
• dry mouth (lasted 2 hours)
• tiredness (sleeping on and off for the past 12 hours; however, this was partially to escape the nasty headache)
• paleness (lasted 2? hours; the doctors commented that I looked pale)

On three different medical websites, I did find some mention of some of these reactions. WebMD talks about the following "severe" rare side effects:

• low energy
• excessive sweating
• abnormal nervous system function affecting mental alertness

Medscape warns about these rare adverse effects:

• CNS depression
• fatigue
• hyperhidrosis (aka excessive sweating)
• pallor

Drugs.com (heh, original name) lists these adverse reactions also lists "CNS: stimulation followed by depression" among the adverse reactions.

Decent overlap with my actual reactions, eh?

And Still Without New Glasses!

So yeah, that was what I did today instead of going in to work. :( Thankfully, Gaurav is not a slave-driver; he was concerned about me and told me to take the day off, or work from home if I felt better by mid-day. Dr. Kelly said he was glad to hear I wasn't going to lose my job or anything. (I hope he was just kidding around; it would suck to have a job where you got fired for such things happening to you!)

And after all that, I still need to go back in and actually pick out my new frames and get the prescription for new lenses filled. Ah well, such is life sometimes. At least everything but the headache has cleared up.

And how was your case of the Mondays? ;)

Finance Blogs I Read

In my blogroll over in the sidebar, I have several finance blogs listed. I read their posts via Bloglines, usually all at the same time. So I have a fairly poor handle on which blog is which.

Thus this post, describing each one briefly. If I get confused about how they're distinct, I can come back to this post and remind myself. :)

Get Rich Slowly

Written by JD. He writes about his personal experiences with his finances. Readers sometimes write in with questions, which JD answers himself then asks others to give their own opinions in the comments. JD also reviews finance magazines and books.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Written by Ramit Sethi, also the co-founder of PBwiki. He interviews finance-related people. He also occasionally does surveys of his readers, then analyzes the results.

Money Smart Life

Written by Ben. This guy is one of the reasons I got myself an American Express Blue Cash credit card.

My Two Dollars

Written by David. He has good, practical tips from his personal experience.

The Simple Dollar

Written by Trent Hamm. In April 2006, he experienced what he calls "a complete financial meltdown." After he educated himself on personal finance and got his stuff in order, he started his blog. Trent sometimes writes book reviews, ending each with a "Buy or Don't Buy" conclusion, which is quite helpful.

Well Heeled

Written by "Wanda". She seems the least hard-core of the bunch, but she's still a good source for seeing what someone more like me is going through. (She says of herself, "On the plus side, I’ve started saving for retirement and I don’t carry a balance on my credit card. On the minus side, I love dining out and generally have a hard time abiding by a budget.") Her blog is more of a description of her financial journeys than the advice-oriented blogs discussed above.

OED! Woot!

When I went to Cal Poly, I had free access to the OED (that is, Oxford English Dictionary, to all you layfolk ;)). But when I graduated, I lost access via my Cal Poly login credentials. Sad panda.

But lo! The Seattle public library also has free access to the OED. Huzzah!

Yes, I am such a language weenie linguistics-phile that renewed access to the OED warrants a blog post. :)

Visiting Family & Obopay

I'm stopping by my apartment to pick up some last-minute almost-forgotten items, then I'm driving down to the SeaTac airport. I'm visiting my family this weekend (the Squirts will both be back from college for the weekend), then doing a big meet-n-greet with the Obopay folks down in Redwood City.

So that's what I'm up to for the next couple days. :)

Robert Frost Meets xkcd

I've always liked Robert Frost. So when the most excellent web comic xkcd spoofed Frost's "Fire and Ice," I just had to share. For those who don't know the poem, I've quoted it below:

1. Some say the world will end in fire,
2. Some say in ice.
3. From what I’ve tasted of desire
4. I hold with those who favor fire.
5. But if it had to perish twice,
6. I think I know enough of hate
7. To know that for destruction ice
8. Is also great
9. And would suffice.

No Post for You!

(5:08:08 PM) Forrest: how come you haven't posted a blog post in a while?

(5:08:12 PM) Forrest: you were on a roll there for a bit

(5:08:14 PM) Arthaey: 'cause I'm a lamer :P

So there it was.

Where's Forrest?

Because Forrest is still finishing up his degree in SLO, we're currently doing the long-distance relationship thing. Not ideal, but it's for a finite amount of time, and we're coping.

One of the ways in which we cope is to chat on the phone, generally at least twice a day. We may or may not both have free time during the middle of day during the work week to chat, but whoever goes to bed first always calls the other one to chat and say goodnight.

That's my routine. My routine is unsettled right now because I want to go to bed, but Forrest isn't answering his new cell phone. That's okay, though; his new cell phone has horrible battery life, so maybe it's dead. But he's not answering his old cell phone, either. That's okay, too; maybe he doesn't carry both on him at the same time. But he's not answering the apartment landline either. That's starting to worry me, since most of our friends have graduated and moved away, so he's not out late much anymore.

So where is he? I don't expect the blogosphere to answer me before I find out. I'm just worrying (now I understand why my mom hates getting late-night calls, since that "must" mean bad news) and I need somewhere to talk to, since there's no someone to talk to right now. :(

Update, 4:30 AM: I finally got a call back from Forrest! Here's the start of our conversation... Me: "I've been trying to call you since midnight." Forrest: "I've been asleep since midnight." Me: "Oh."

Heh. Forrest apparently went to bed just before I got home from watching Moulin Rouge, which explains why he wasn't answering any of the phones. I'm shocked he managed to sleep through 4 hours of phone-ringing, but he's got amazing Powers of Sleep. So I explained sheepishly that I was starting to worry, I apologized for waking him up, and I let him go back to sleep. Oops! But at least everything's okay.

Outdoor Movies are Cool

Last night I went to see The Princess Bride at the Mural Amphitheater (at the Seattle Center). It was a fun crowd to watch that movie with — lots of cheering and booing. I had too much cotton candy and felt a little sick to my stomach afterwards, but otherwise good times. :)

Tonight I went to the Fremont Outdoor Cinema to watch Moulin Rouge. Moulin Rouge is my favorite movie, so I was really happy to be seeing it in such an unusual setting. I invited Josh to come along, and his roommate (Phil), roommate's girlfriend (Mary), roommate's other friend (Ginger), roommate's sister (Ivona), and roommate's mother (?) all came along, too. (Wow, I think I actually remembered all the names I was told tonight!) It was nice meeting some more people, and again the crowd was great.

Pre-movie, the Jet City Improv group (who hosted the event) lead some Moulin Rouge trivia, a paper airplane contest (which Phil failed miserably at, apparently just like the last time he entered such a competition), a dance competition, a complete-the-lyrics competition, and a feather boa caterpillar raffle (which, sadly, I did not win). I'd definitely like to attend these sorts of events in the future.

Before the movie tonight, I was killing time in Fremont, reading The Best American Science Writing, 2006 that I bought from Fremont Place Books. Interesting, educational, and enjoyable writing — good stuff. If you're looking for a random book to read, here ya go. :)

Blog Update Progress, Part 2

Per some design discussions with Forrest, I have an updated to-do list for finishing up my blog layout update:

1. make comments appear above post footer
2. remove dashed borders around posts
3. re-color comment and profile icons
4. do something about the Friends sidebar having so much empty space
5. do something with footer
6. update all labels :( . Useful links: [1], [2], [3]
7. re-do peek-a-boo comments, like how they were pre-redesign
8. hide permalink-link on post page

Update, 10:15 PM:

9. look into the anchor scrolling issue
10. re-do highlighting of my own comments, like how they were pre-redesign
11. add « and » to the "Newer posts" and "Older posts" links
12. pull user icons onto peek-a-boo comments, like how they are on the "post a comment" page

Update, August 2, 11:14 AM:

13. replace? add? calendar view of archive [4]
14. make a hierarchical label display [5]

The above items will be strike-through'd (struck-through?) as they are completed.

Blog Layout Upgrade in Progress

Don't panic! I have not forsaken Blue, I'm just finally upgrading my Blogger template to their Blogger v2 system. Your Arthaey-approved blue colorscheme will be forthcoming, no worries.

Update, 11:13 PM: I've got the old colorscheme back in place, more or less. So now it looks like my blog again. (Not that you feed-readers care; that's okay. :)) Next up on the list is peek-a-boo comments, like they were before.

Update, 11:55 PM: I have peek-a-boo comments back in place now, though I'm not entirely happy with them. The old-style Blogger instructions don't work for the new Blogger, so I had to follow Stephen Weber's instructions. He has asynchronous and synchronous versions of his instructions; I went with the former because all the script-loading for the synchronous version made the page very slow to load. But now you see some "loading..." text for a moment before the post's comments display, and I don't like that.

I also still need to redo the graphics that make this particular Blogger template have rounded corners [1] on the divs... But I'm ridiculously tired — I should have gone to bed hours ago — so I'll look into fixing up the graphics and comments some other day.

Linguistic Mystic Post: Everyday Linguistics

Over on another blog, the Linguistic Mystic wrote an article titled The Double-Edged Sword of Linguistic Passion, which describes my day-to-day experience with linguistics very well. I'll let the Mystic explain. :)

The Merechi Blog

Pas keniriv mleni ejh vek'nes vás'vanuna k', kret'vesha no emaelivdeni vek'di adhen. Lajiv neshad ne gir'emaelivon riga'vik vojeni.

Vik esni emaeliv vesha'lomael so'Amanda 'da meirechith k'. Sirev lomael seith ne shalthan 'sa lomael ghya seni, vet'sholdavni ne ovon shalthan 'sa eyemaene seith. Yet sholdav esa ne lisevon done dasharan, jhiye cha'akénelvaiye ne lomael meirechith 'da so'Amanda. [explanation]

Or, in English:

My boyfriend visited this weekend, but I will write about that later. The topic needs more writing than I can right now.

I'm writing now about Amanda's merechi blog. Her blog has a link to my own blog, so I want to link to her website. If you want to read in a conlang, then go look at the merechi blog of Amanda's.

My Car's Brakes Died

My '95 Honda Civic has had mild brake issues for a while. So, when the brakes started making a low grinding noise Monday on the way to work, it wasn't shocking. Not happy, but not shocking either.

When cars make weird noises, I figure that's bad and I do my best to pull over immediately. There was a pay lot through the intersection from where the noise started, so I pulled in to the lot. I got out of the car and looked at the tires, but I didn't see anything really really obvious. Kicking myself for letting my AAA Roadside expire, I stood around wondering what to do. Then I noticed that Goodyear was right next to the pay lot. So some good luck, at least.

I drove my car one lot over and went in to the Goodyear office. I told them what was going on with my car and they said they'd look at it for me. We agreed that they wouldn't start work until they told me what was wrong, had an estimate, and received my approval to charge me for the work. One of the employees gave me a lift to work, which was nice of him. "It gets me out of there," was his explanation. :)

They called me later that afternoon to report that the front brake pads and rotors would have to be replaced. In addition, the driver's side CV joint boot was torn and needed to be fixed. They quoted me $1000 for the entire job. I thanked them for the estimate and told them I'd get back in touch to authorize the work.

It seemed to me that $1000 was high, but I don't do my own car work, so I wasn't sure. I called my dad and Forrest; they both thought it a ridiculous price, especially when over $700 was just for the brake pads and rotors themselves. I looked up some Honda-only places, and ended up taking my car to Honda Specialties, who had quoted the same job at $450.

My coworker* Josh gave me a ride back to work from Honda Specialties. I didn't realize it at the time, but my cell phone fell out of my pocket in Josh's car. Later in the day, I noticed I didn't have my phone with me. I hoped it was in his car, but he'd parked quite a ways from work that day and so I didn't go out to look for my car right then. I called up Honda Specialties to let them know that the number I'd given them wouldn't be very useful. I gave them my work number, but apparently my extension doesn't actually work; you have to navigate the directory, which most people don't bother to do. (And I don't blame them.)

So I tried calling the mechanics back, but I'd waited too long and they had already closed. Not so bad, though: I have bus tickets and the 17 goes right between work and downtown. (First Hill is practically the same as downtown, so those routes are great for me.)

Last night when I was going to bed, though, I remembered I still didn't have my cell phone. No cell phone means no alarm clock. And if you know me, you know I'm not naturally a morning person. So I was, uh, a "bit" late in to work today.

After lunch today, Josh gave me a lift back up to Honda Specialties. I paid for the work done ($475) and drove back to work. I'm happy to have my car back in working order, even if my wallet is not so happy.

The word "coworker" doesn't really imply "friend", but "friend" by itself doesn't tell you that I also work with said friend. "Coworker-friend" just looks silly. So I'm without a succinct word; or, at least, I can't think of it right now. But if you read this footnote, then at least you understand what I wanted to convey. :)

Make Easy Money: Become a Scam Artist Today!

Apparently scamming people for money via panhandling is totally legal. So, if your morals don't dissuade you from it, I suggest going out and scamming your local kind folk!

Perhaps some background is in order, eh? About a month or two ago, I was walking downtown on 5th Avenue with my friend Shane when this guy in a suit stopped us. He said that his story was a little embarrassing, but his car had run out of gas. He said he would be happy to show us his ID (for what? I dunno), but he would really appreciate it if we could spare some cash for just a gallon of gas to get home. I'm very distrustful of strangers, but Shane had barely finished listening to his story before he gave him a $10 bill. The guy thanked him and walked off.

Shane and I discussed a bit about how it's hard to tell the motives behind strangers asking for money. But we both agreed that a well-dressed person seemed less likely to go spend begged money on booze or drugs. We left the conversation at that, and went on about our evening.

Fast forward to today. I was walking back home along 6th Avenue when a guy in a suit stopped me. (Sound familiar?) He launched into his "slightly embarrassing" story about how his mom was in from Spokane and for some reason her credit cards were frozen and they just needed a little cash for something or other. I had this very strong feeling of deja vu, then I recognized this guy and his sob story from before! I backed away while he was still trying to convince me to be charitable, and I told him I thought I'd seen him before. He denied it, of course, but I didn't feel like debating his scamminess with him. So I just kept walking, and he walked off the other way.

When I got home, I looked up the non-emergency police number for Seattle and reported the guy. The woman on the phone politely informed me that, unfortunately, panhandling was not a crime unless it's aggressive. This scammy-suit-man was nothing if not polite. So I apologized for taking up the woman's time, and I hung up.

At least I can blog about it and try to warn my Seattle friends about this guy.

Update: According to Wikipedia, this is (unsurprisingly) a well-known con:

Just $5: this is an abuse of charity scam: the conman approaches the victim and asks for "just $5" to help them achieve some goal that is almost within reach. The conman displays cash to prove they have "almost enough" and usually adds some props/window-dressing to add veracity: carrying a car part that needs repair/replacement or carrying a gas can (because the car ran out of gas and the wife/child is waiting). The victim frequently gives double or triple the amount requested or more. Couples are the preferred target: the wife for sympathy, the husband often pays out of nobility.

And then a Nothing Goes Right day

So Sunday was a good day; Monday I actually spent working from home and fighting with non-functioning drivers and keyboards. Today continues downward.

I woke up late, not feeling rested at all, and scrambled off to my follow-up dental appointment. My absence-of-teeth are doing fine, but for the 3 to 6 weeks it'll take to heal, I have to squirt water into the sockets after each meal. After that, I got my last pain meds prescription filled, just to keep them on hand. (Neener neener, Aaron. :) Then I went over to the Virginia Mason hospital (through the wrong entrance, oops) to sit on hold on their dedicated appointment-scheduling phone. At least I got an appointment.

I get home at 10:30 -- later than I'd hoped, but still within the range that I normally get in to work. Except there are FOUR cars in the alley blocking my garage. I left a note on the U-Haul and called to let Gaurav know what's up. And we have an All Hands at noon! An hour and 2 checks later, the cars haven't moved.

I figured by this point driving in to work was a lost cause, so I looked up the bus schedule. If I left RIGHT THEN, I could still catch the one bus that goes to work. So I switch into my Vans -- I can wall faster in them than in my boots -- and hustled downtown. But when I got there, the little old lady at the bus stop said I'd just missed the bus. Arg!

I consoled myself with a lemon car and mocha while waited the half hour for the next bus. I'm on said bus now, almost to work. Of course, now I have a headache. :( I just can't win today.

Friends, Coffee, Blogs, Servers, and Grocery Stores (Oh My!)

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty good day, despite the drizzly weather. (Today's nice and sunny!) Here's the run-down on what I did yesterday:

24-Year-Old Female Not Actually a 40-Year-Old Male

I hadn't managed to make any real friends at the Spanish-English intercambio I attended, and I haven't really hung out socially with my coworkers, so two days ago I turned to Craigslist's "strictly platonic" section to see if there were other friend-deficient Seattle newcomers looking for companionship. After ignoring the many anything-but-platonic postings, I responded to one 24-year-old who said she lived in Capitol Hill (the next neighborhood over from me).

We emailed back and forth a few times. She didn't sound creepy, so when she emailed me yesterday to let me know she'd be at the Bauhaus (a nice coffee shop within walking distance of me), I walked over there after stopping by the library to pick up Cryptonomicon. ("Finally!!1!!eleventy-one!" I hear Forrest and Jerry say.)

I'd never responded to "personal ads" on Craigslist before, nor met up with someone from the Internet that I hadn't even spent 24 hours conversing with first. So I was a little concerned that this "Claire" person would turn out to be some scary 40-year-old guy looking to stalk unsuspecting women. But Claire turned out to be honest: she is, in fact, a 24-year-old female.

We chatted for while, did the basic "what do you do? what are your hobbies and interests?" exchange. She's a copy editor (she both works for a company and has her own business through which she does freelancing. She's in a long-distance relationship too, but she combines her visits with business-related meetings so she can write off the travel expenses. I need me a freelancing gig! ;) (She's lucky that her "long-distance" is only to Spokane; interstate long-distance relationships really suck [especially when said states are big western states].)

We seemed to get along, so hopefully we'll meet up again at some point. It'd be great to actually have a real friend up here within walking distance. (Shane, you're awesome, but... Eastside! Ugh! ;) Not so conducive to causal hanging-outage.)

Coffee Cupping

Claire and I chatted for about an hour and a half, but we might have chatted longer if it weren't for a coffee training/educational session at 2 PM. I found out about the session through MeetUp.com and decided to go. It ended up being pretty cool.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters put on the session for about 10 of us random MeetUp people. They talked about their coffee beans, then showed us how to do taste-testing. We sampled six different beans from Guatemala, Brazil, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Sumatra, plus a the "hair bender" blend meant specifically for espresso shots. In the world of coffee, this taste-testing is called "cupping." Sounds vaguely dirty, but try not to think about it.

Based on the samples, it turns out I prefer "full-bodied" coffees. I suspect this is from growing up with my dad's French roast coffees. I just didn't like the lighter coffees much. The Ethiopian one, though, was really different — the description claimed it was fruity, but I've never been able to match wine/chocolate/coffee tasting descriptions with what my taste buds actually taste.

At the end of the session, we got a little half-bag of coffee (I took the full-bodied Guatemalan) in exchange for our $5. I made myself a cup this morning; it was yummy (especially with the addition of Bailey's, heh).

Discovered New(-to-me) Psychology Blogs

Then I went home and played around on the internet. I discovered (via PsyBlog) a bunch of new-to-me psychology blogs:

• Cognitive Daily
• Inkling Magazine
• The Last Psychiatrist
• Mind Hacks
• Mixing Memory
• The Phineas Gage Fan Club
• Positive Psychology News Daily
• Research Digest Blog

New Server and Monitor, Free!

Then, Chuck called to let me know I could come pick up his old 700 MHz machine that he'd previously said I could have. I drove over and snatched it from his porch, then found a free monitor on the next block! So I'm going to install Ubuntu Server on it — just as soon as I get a keyboard. Oops.

New Grocery Store 2 Blocks Away

Finally, I discovered that M Street Grocery finally opened, just two blocks from where I live. I bought some CPK garlic chicken pizza and strawberry mochi ice cream. And I was even able to chew the pizza. Happy!

The Good Things That Happened Today

I was reading about positive psychology while surfing around the internets today. I ignore the things that sound New Age-y or otherwise hokey and pay attention to the things that make sense to me.

One thing several articles talked about was recording the good things that had happened during the day. It's so easy to gripe about all the things that went wrong during the day, but that's a crappy way to experience life. If I can choose to focus my attention (and later, memories) on the positive things and let the negative things slip by — rather than the other way around, which seems easier to do — then I would expect to be happier overall.

So here's the list of good things I can recall happening today:

• I woke up pleased that my (lack of) wisdom teeth weren't as sore as yesterday.
• Despite snoozing through my alarm later than intended, I still got in to work before Chuck-the-manager, who was coming in late today.
• I have always thought that I didn't like chili. But when my coworkers were going to the sandwich deli across the street for lunch today, I wanted their company and I tagged along. The no-chewing-required foods available were clam chowder and chili. I realized that I couldn't really remember having chili, so maybe I would like it after all. I ordered a bowl of chili and was very pleasantly surprised by how yummy and not–bean-heavy it was. Maybe I'll order chili again! (I remain suspicious of canned chili, however.)
• For a brief period of time, it looked like Forrest would be able to find a reasonably-priced plane ticket to come see me this weekend. That would have been awesome, and I was really looking forward to seeing him. (Then the price disappeared from the website and he couldn't come after all. But I remember the feeling of being excited to see him. Maybe I can focus just on that aspect of the memory?)
• I made Jiffy corn muffins last weekend, then brought the leftovers to work for my coworkers after my oral surgery made eating solid things impossible. There were still a couple left today. They reheated great, were still soft and tasty, and I was able to eat them without a problem! (The little things, right? :))
• I chatted with Olya online today; we haven't talked for a month or so, so it was great to catch up again. I love how we remain close, even though we have such chats very infrequently.
• I wrote up this list, which actually has put me in a better mood. I started writing the list specifically because I was feeling down beforehand, so it's great that such a simple, easy thing really did affect my mood so quickly.

My Wisdom Teeth

My Wisdom Teeth

Only two of four made it out of my mouth intact. The dentist said he couldn't get the other two out whole.

Wisdom Teeth, Post-op

So I have no wisdom teeth left. Actually, that's a lie: I have 2 of them in a container. Will the Tooth Fairy come, I wonder? *peer Mom*

I really don't feel too out of it. Definitely drowsy -- I'm planning on watching TV shows and movies for the rest of the day. But other than that I feel more or less normal. I can't talk worth anything though -- gauze stuffed between your teeth will do that to ya. :P

Wisdom Teeth, Pre-op

Pre-Op Pills for Wisdom Teeth

The oral surgeon gave me a fair number of instructions to follow, and I'm afraid I'll forget something. So I wrote everything down on little sticky notes; now all I have to do is follow them in order!

Today I'm getting my wisdom teeth out. The oral surgeon said it would have been easier to remove them five years ago, before the roots had finished growing. So I warned my five-year younger sisters to get their wisdom teeth checked out. Lisa's are too close to her jaw's nerve to justify preemptive surgery, but Rene's getting hers out later this week.

I can't say I'm looking forward to it -- I hate the dentist -- but my wisdom teeth have already caused one infection, and my regular dentist wants them gone and out of the way before she works on all my other cavities. :(

I'm going in for a half day of work today, and I worked yesterday to cover for my anticipated post-surgery uselessness. Forrest wants me to call him while I'm still loopy after the surgery meds and drugs. And after that, I'm probably just going to rest or sleep. I've never known about anyone else's getting their wisdom teeth out; I don't really know what to expect.

Testing from My New Phone

I bought a refurb (ie cheap!) cell phone last month and I hadn't tested that I could still post to my blog. So here's that test.

Internetless in Seattle

I've made the move up to Seattle with Forrest's help. Alas, I'm still without internet and am posting from the crazy-cool Seattle library. No internet means no reliable email, so if you want to get in contact with me in the meantime, my cell phone (same California number) is your best bet.

Posting in more detail to come with internet. I have pictures!

We Are Not the Phone Number You Are Looking For

When Forrest and I signed up for our DSL service, we had to get a landline too. This is fine, since it means we have a cool rotary phone and a "throw away" number we don't mind putting down on forms. And we do occasionally get telemarketers. But what's unusual is the number of plain ol' wrong numbers we get.

Please, Peoples of Telephonic World, double-check your number! We are not the phone number you are looking for. For example:

• We are not Jason.
• We are not Carrie of United Airlines.
• We are not Farm Supply.

If we got a larger percentage of Farm Supply wrong numbers (we're only one digit off), we would consider answering the landline phone as "Hello, Not Farm Supply." But we also have to contend with being Not Jason and Not Carrie/Not United Airlines. Ah, the dilemmas in life.